Formidable South African Bowlers Await England’s Batsmen

England hopes Alex Hales, who is making his debut in test cricket, will be the ideal complement to Alastair Cook at the top of its batting order.CreditRogan Ward/Reuters

By Huw Richards

Dec. 25, 2015

EDINBURGH, Scotland — England captain Alastair Cook turned 31 Friday, and it’s a fair bet that at the top of his Christmas and birthday gift list was something he has been wanting for the past three years — a reliable partner at the top of the batting order.

At some point in the five-day test away against South Africa that begins in Durban on Saturday, the first of a four-match series stretching over the next month, he’ll step out to begin England’s innings. Alongside him will be his eighth different partner in a little over three years.

Alex Hales of Nottinghamshire, who turns 27 on Jan. 3, is slated to make his test debut and represents a significant experiment.

Hales made his name in the shortest form of the game and has been a regular on England’s Twenty20 team since his debut in 2011. The hope is that he can move to test cricket with the same effect that Dave Warner has had for Australia.

But first England would like him to justify his selection for a while. Cook’s seven partners since the retirement in 2012 of Andrew Strauss, who is now director of England cricket, have averaged a little more than five matches each before being discarded.

“It needs the selectors to be brave enough to stick with the person who they think is the answer,” the former England opener and captain Alec Stewart told BBC Sport on Wednesday. “If you’re always searching after four or five games, you will always be looking.”

Hales could hardly have a tougher start. South Africa has the most formidable opening bowlers in the world in Dale Steyn, who has topped the world rankings for most of the past seven years, and the aggressive Morné Morkel.

“I haven’t actually looked at England’s squad that much,” Steyn admitted Wednesday, explaining that he had been concentrating on recovery from the groin injury that ruled him out of three tests on South Africa’s recent tour of India.

England will certainly have been looking at him and will not be reassured to hear him say, “I’m feeling good. The ball is coming out fine.”

South Africa’s prize for an early breakthrough will be a shot at a remodeled England top order, with Nick Compton — back after a three-year gap — and the diminutive James Taylor, in only the fourth match of his return after a similar absence, still feeling their way back into test cricket.

For Compton, 33, one of Cook’s discarded opening partners, the Durban test is particularly big. Not only is it a second chance he thought might never happen, but it is happening in the city where he grew up. He is bent on playing with greater conviction than in his previous nine-match spell with the England team.

“I didn’t play as I would have liked,” he said last Saturday. “My aim is to get myself in and give myself the best chance. The more time I spend out there, I feel I’ll be doing a good job for the team and myself.”

At least England does not have to reckon with Vernon Philander, South Africa’s other world-class pace bowler, who is out of both the Durban test and next week’s match at Cape Town with an ankle injury.

South Africa was also severely jolted by its 3-0 loss to India, its first defeat in an away series for nine years. That result severely trimmed its previous comfortable lead in the world rankings. A further defeat could drop it into second place behind India.

Most of the damage in India was done by top-class spin bowling — a weapon England does not possess. The touring team is also without its leading paceman, Jimmy Anderson, who earlier this year became the first Englishman to take 400 wickets in test matches. He has been ruled out with a calf strain.

The top of South Africa’s batting order also looks vulnerable, despite the presence of captain Hashim Amla and his deputy AB de Villiers, two of the best batsmen in the world. Neither prospered in India.

“We’ve got some serious quality in our batting lineup,” South Africa coach Russell Domingo said Tuesday. “We know it is all about runs and putting in big performances, but we know it is one big score away, one good start, or one dropped catch, and somebody can get a bit of luck and a bit of momentum going, and everything will clack back into place.”

England’s bowlers, led in Anderson’s absence by Stuart Broad, will labor to prevent that change in fortunes, knowing that this rivalry is usually tightly contested. Only one of nine series since England resumed playing South Africa in 1994 has been decided by a margin of more than one match, and this one looks set to maintain that pattern of closely fought contests.